Data collection devices whose primary or exclusive function is as a point of sale (hereinafter POS) terminal are known and in recent years have become quite sophisticated, including a variety of functions to facilitate credit card sales transactions. For example, POS terminals have provided readers for reading customer information from the credit card, barcode scanners for automatically entering product information from barcodes on products, their label or packaging, keyboards for entering customer personal identification numbers and other transaction information and commands, displays, receipt printers, and telephone or computer links to obtain transaction approval.
Many businesses accepting payment by credit card, especially those engaged in retail sales or services, have found it desirable to employ less expensive and more flexible portable POS terminals to process credit card transactions for more expeditious customer checkout, and to address peak customer volume, reduce traffic at congested checkout counters, reduce capital equipment expenditures, provide additional, easily relocatable temporary checkout registers, and allow additional order-entry terminals for products presently unavailable at the point of sale, among other reasons. Invariably, however, existing POS terminals intended for portable operation fail to provide all functions necessary to facilitate credit card transaction processing by a portable, handheld POS terminal. Moreover, it is also evident that existing POS terminals have not begun to address component arrangement to facilitate handheld operation.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,722,054 discloses an input system for a POS terminal having a portable unit which provides a card reader through which the customer may pass a credit card and a keypad into which a customer may input a personal identification number. The customer then returns the portable unit to the sales counter, where a salesperson connects it to a repeater to transmit that information to a stationary controller. Information on the purchased products must be manually entered into the stationary controller by the salesperson. In much the same manner, the unattached keypad shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,967,366 only allows the remote entry of the customer's personal identification number; all other transaction information must be still entered into the fixed, POS authorization controller.
Another POS terminal, the Model E 232 Electronic Payment Terminal manufactured by Electronique Serge Dassault of St-Cloud Cedex, Franz, provides for magnetic card reading, a keypad, a readout screen and a printer to generate a receipt. Intended for electronic fund transfer authorization, this device not only does not include a barcode scanner, it also does not permit manual entry of purchasing product identification.
Thus, despite the increased popularity of the handheld POS terminal, no such terminal has been provided that provides all the necessary functions to allow the transaction to be completed at a location remote from stationary POS terminals, while simultaneously arranging components to facilitate handheld use.